


Defiance and Other Small Rebellions

by RavensChrome



Category: Dragon Quest XI
Genre: AU where Jasper Leaves Heliodor, Found Family, Fuck Heliodor fic, Gen, Jasper is a dad now, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:55:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25448716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavensChrome/pseuds/RavensChrome
Summary: Jasper is a smarter man than anybody gives him credit for.So he leaves.
Relationships: Homer | Jasper & Camus | Erik (Dragon Quest XI), Homer | Jasper & Maya | Mia (Dragon Quest XI)
Comments: 17
Kudos: 56





	Defiance and Other Small Rebellions

**Author's Note:**

> This.

An eye for an eye was Jasper's favourite phrase to live by, it served him well and watched those who wronged him fall by their own games.

Of course, he didn't inflict the same physical pains when getting hurt, he wasn't stupid to draw unnecessary and easily avoidable troubles to himself. Despite how crude his favourite saying was, there is a poetic elegance when actually implementing his small revenge schemes.

At least when he does it anyways.

“ _What is the meaning of this, Jasper?!”_

Hendrik's rage and confusion, something that Jasper left unanswered.

The stellar knight was blinded by the shiny glory and praise, choose to ignore the the shadow that he cast each and every time they met up.

Envy reared and Jasper tried to be happy for Hendrik, but even he had to acknowledge his own limits. Acknowledge that old promises from their youth and the goals they reached can be weathered and warped because of the paths that were laid out and the strengths they've chosen to pursue.

“ _Do not think badly of me Hendrik, this is something I must do for myself.”_

The tragedy that was Dundrasil from barely a decade ago changed both the king and Hendrik. As Hendrik pursued his strength over the monsters that surged from the coming evil that was the Darkspawn, Jasper took his mind to strategies to best counter and figure out the source of them. Logic dictated that the monsters must spawn somehow even with the coming of the Darkspawn.

Of course, no one appreciates wisdom and intelligence behind the scenes. Only the brute force that swings and cuts. Jasper did both and yet his dual wielding was no match for the strength that swung heavily like Hendrik's great sword. The axes that the man wields were also exotic compare to swords.

Jasper didn't mind being second to Hendrik, they were best friends and they saved each other's lives more than once. If anything, scholar wise, Jasper was superior and everyone most definitely knows that. They shoved at each other's weaknesses and banter too thoroughly that they would find new combinations of words to insult each other with.

But he's changed, the king's changed, and the rest of Heliodor followed. The citizens became restless and over the years, the downtown area suffered from the slow leeching that the tax to build Heliodor's forces with. Crime started to fester down there and despite the fact that Jasper himself hate the rats that were petty thieves and the like, he couldn't help but glower at the men who were the cause and turn their heads from it.

A guard post that connected the downtown area to the rest of Heliodor was Jasper's breaking point. That instead of addressing the issue, they were going to cover it up like dust under a rug.

Jasper wouldn't ever be an epitome of the good of humanity, Hendrik was closer to that than he'll ever be, but even he has his own morals he follows.

And they weren't the king's, not anymore at least. He knows he's chosen his new path well when he can see a deceptive light in the king's eyes despite the pity in his voice of Jasper's retirement. It was a light that shined darkly, an omen that Jasper cannot voice lest he finds himself dead for blasphemy.

Before, that wasn't something anyone would fear. King Carnelian was a just and merciful ruler.

Now, Jasper wasn't too sure, but he's definitely one of the smarter ones to recognize that something was wrong. Probably the smartest because he knows how to keep his mouth shut.

It wasn't knightly, but what's a knight when his king was but a shade of himself? What's a knight when the king was quite eager to send him off despite being one of his best?

Jasper knows after the final confirmation of his retirement that he was just a suspicious eyed pet that the king didn't want to deal with.

The fall of Dundrasil was the start of the slow fall of Heliodor. Jasper knows grief blinds the king and Hendrik fully, the lose of the princess and the reminder of Hendrik's own devastation. Jasper doesn't have the same sort of loss that they are feeling, but even he knows that the suffering they feel should not spread the seeds of evil.

And in the king's case, do it so purposefully.

Was it wrong for Jasper to leave those ignorant to a dark fate? Sure, but the king wasn't so stupid to strike his people down so swiftly. The only ones that would truly suffer were the poor and helpless in downtown Heliodor. The everyday citizens would simply continue to live as they did before, sheep with their shepherd. All the hearsayers are now silenced with false crimes. As long as no one else stirs the pot and either leave or live quietly, nothing bad will happen.

And for Jasper? It was best to leave the region entirely.

  
  


_-Line Break-_

He didn't like children, but there was a tenacity that only they had when adults fail. Or were the cause of their suffering.

It always baffled Jasper to some extend on why the Sniflheim King would let the Vikings run free. Vagrants that prey on merchants that weren't of Sniflheim citizens. Pirates that cause endless terror on the seas.

It wasn't until he was talking to the guard at the gates that he's reminded why. One would think that the harsh climates of the Snaerfelt region would make burlier men out of the soldiers here. In the past, Sniflheim was actually lead an army strong enough to hold down comfortably when monsters started to gather and invade. This kingdom only knew hardship and it made the citizens near unconquerable, nothing but a civil war would've brought them down.

The weather kept them all together and in peace.

Peace has made them rot.

Jasper would like to point out once more that he wasn't a saint, but he was also not cruel. Not like these people who would turn away blind as if a child wasn't struck by a sizable Viking man. A man that dwarfed the boy near ten times for failing to carry something that not even Jasper carried in his training at that age.

He would've stomped up and strike the man down. He would've pulled the boy away from the gross injustice.

He would've saved him if he wasn't already on a ship sailing away.

Months have passed since his departure and this is how he gains his ability to sympathize. A small failure on his part just because of distance. Hendrik would have celebrated for him.

It wasn't a week later on the day of his departure from this wretched and frigid place that he has his second chance in redemption.

“ _Come back here, you little rats!_ ”

Jasper hated rats. They were disgusting and plague ridden. Found in the most dirtiest of places to scavenge and feed off of the scrapes left behind.

The ones before him was probably the worse he's seen. Ugly brutes that has never seen a comb for their unruly hair and beards. Smudges of _something_ lined their hands and various parts of skin that was showing. Teeth yellowed and half rotted.

Even worse still that it takes a group of these men to subdue children. Children that had far more merit by the boy who keeps protecting the little girl that couldn't be anything but his sister.

Once upon a time, he too had a small family he barely remembers. A mother and a father that protected him to the end.

Then he found another that picked him up to encourage his life.

“Stand down, scoundrels.” Jasper glared drawing his sword. “It is unsightly to see grown men take on children like juvenile delinquents.”

“And who do you think you are?” One man sneered. “A knight in shining armor? Those kids belong to us, we'll treat them how we want to!”

Jasper didn't deign him with an answer and simply whipped his sword to the side. He only needed one, none of them were worth his second coming out. Even if they rush at him at the same time, their numbers will fall against his skill.

It will be the day he fully hangs up his swords if he falls against men like these when Hendrik was a challenge he's yet to beat. As burly majority of these Vikings were, Hendrik stood heavier with more muscle.

It didn't take any true show of skill to down all the ratty men here. Too much muscle and not enough skill to know how to use them properly. He felt more of a swords dancer with the crowd he's attracted.

Jasper scowled at them all alike.

“The fact that all of Sniflheim lets this go unpunished lowers you all to their level.” Jasper let the poison drip through his words. “That you're so spineless that these criminals run amok like free roaming pests. Guards that would rather die in the cold than help the citizens, citizens that would retreat to their homes to get fat while the lesser fortunate suffer.” Everyone flinched at his words. “What a despicable kingdom.”

But what's to say about Heliodor? His own home that he left?

The same unfortunately. Some will call him a coward for running away from the festering problem, that he could've been the change from the inside out. Help redeem the kingdom into its rightful glory.

But again, Jasper wasn't stupid. He knows his skill and knows when a problem can't be solved by one man. He was powerless alone in the face of a slow, corrupting ideology.

He stopped his thoughts to turn to the children he saved. Both wore second hand clothing that were months away from being rags. The little girl even worse off probably from the fact that those brutish men didn't know how to take care of a female child. It's a short of a miracle that both of them weren't suffering from any cold injury as of yet.

Though he couldn't tell if the trembling that they both had was from the cold or fear.

“You both can come with me, or stay.” Jasper said in a low voice. “But it would behoove you to at least leave this place before you attract more pests.”

He's left his home, underappreciated and being pushed to the side, he's left it behind before it can to him. The toxic cloud that nearly consumed him was now easily seen in nearly all the places he's been to. A rot that was self inflict, the very reason why he calls it _a rot._

And although he hates children, he thinks he can get by if he thinks them as bedraggled cats. Small little Silver Sabrecubs that both clung on to his cloak as he headed back to the inn for one more day in this dreadful place.

His only consultation to himself was that he'll definitely take better care of the cats than the whole kingdom has.

  
  


_-Line Break-_

Traveling on the roads didn't agree to Jasper, but he did love journeying to the different towns and cities he ended up in. If only because he enjoyed the new knowledge that came with in being in a different place. Simple luxuries such as a bed was always preferred as knighthood made them something to never take for granted.

And with his hair, anyone can tell he was a vain one. Baths were something he relished in, cleanliness was a must because he's earned that right with his rise in the ranks.

“Your children are adorable!” The inn keeper quietly cooed. “Even if they don't have your colours, they certainly take after you!”

A couple of years have passed since Jasper acquired Erik and Mia and he was right to think them as cats. A pair of skittish felines that were woefully separated from their mother before they were fully weaned. Both have a feral feel to them, Erik more so than Mia, but they've come to learn Jasper's routine easily enough.

Too easily in fact. Mia too eager to get her hands on her own weapons to properly use, claws too fittingly. Erik on the other hand was all too ready to dive in into swordsmanship. With him having a similar build to Jasper, it wasn't hard to impart his style.

But it was their wild natures that kept them from fully forming a knight's discipline though. Mia too carefree to seriously take a knight's regime and Erik stood resistant against anything that will restrict him.

So it stands to pass on why it confused him when the inn keeper said the words she said.

“Oh, don't be like that, dear.” The inn keeper gave a hearty laugh. “I've met plenty of single parents unfortunately, they all have nearly the same stories. Or at least this one I can tell.” She gave a knowing smile. “You may not think it, but children mimic the adults they like. Be it their behavior or looks.”

“I don't understand.”

She rolled her eyes. “Your hair for one. Both your boy and little girl are definitely trying to copy your ponytail. They also have the same Sabrecat glare you have when you come down first thing in the morning. All of you stalk down to breakfast and it put everyone in a good mood at how cute you all are!”

Jasper's long stopped from correcting people about the relationship between him and the children. It was a tedious effort to put forth more words in a repeating manner when it was easier to let others make the assumption. It wasn't as if it was hindering him any.

But this would be the first time someone saying something like this.

“Most people I know would say I'm a terrible with children.”

“Nonsense!” The inn keeper huffed. “They obviously don't know what they're talking about! You feed and dress them well enough, and unlike most, yours have enough decency and common sense when carrying those weapons of theirs. I say you're doing a splendid job.”

“Jassy!” Mia came scampering down the stairs and ran up to him. “Erik got the hairbrush stuck in his hair again.”

“Again?” Jasper sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I keep telling him to cut his hair because of this, one day he'll rip it all out with the way he keeps it.”

Mia rolled her eyes. “Yeah but he loves it, and it's your fault too.”

The inn keeper giggled and sent him a wink.

And it wasn't until he was lying in bed with both children squishing into his side in a mess of blankets and hair that he realized that she was right. That he's really a father figure to these children in all the ways imaginable.

He had no real expectations of them when he picked them up. No knightly bind to hold them up to like he was nor did he expect them to become one. Jasper simply used the knight's codes of conduct and training as guides and stepping stones on why the Vikings and everyone in Sniflheim were lower than the rats that lined their sewers.

Maybe the loss of his own parents made him slow to realize this. The betrayal on King Carnelian's part put a halting stop to it when it's realized that Jasper was just a pawn he was continuously promoting until he proved to be not useful anymore.

Although parental love was a whimsy thing he's stopped dreaming about as he grew up, he's not about to relay his bitterness to his children.

  
  


_-Line Break-_

“J-jasper?” Hendrik gaped at seeing his old friend after years of being gone. “You... you have children?”

“Yes, I do.” Jasper looked on with disgust. “And pray tell, _why_ it seems you're throwing them into the dungeons?” He scowled and glared harder at the blades pointed towards the boy that looked no old than his own. “Has Heliodor fallen so far that children are worth dozens of men to subdue now?”

“You don't understand, Jasper. He's the Darkspawn!”

“Holy shit.” Erik gaped. “No wonder you left, this place is crazy! Jassy, are you sure you know this guy?”

Jasper ignored Erik's language to fully observe what kind of person Hendrik and the rest of the men have become. Years has rusted or stagnated them, he could tell just at a glance that the rotting ideology has frozen the time for them until they started deteriorating slowly. Hendrik, being who he was was simply the lucky one to stay frozen with his vows staying strong.

But what use are vows when revenge clouded his judgement.

“I do, but I suppose it is I who changed.”

And although he still hates the world just out of principle, it is out of the same principles that made him defy Hendrik's poor attempts at order.

Jasper's reward for that was a rabbit with the Mark of Light on his hand.

**Author's Note:**

> Jasper is seriously hard to work with during canon, so I said fuck it.


End file.
